Trying to Do and Be Good

When life gets busy I forget to do the little things that keep me happy and keep my testimony strong. Each life change takes adjustment, and it always seems like I have to start over to recommit to try to do and be good. Starting college, getting engaged, getting married, starting graduate school, starting a real full-time job, having a baby, moving many many times---these are all changes I've gone through in the past five years. With each of these changes I have tried to keep my focus on the gospel and on the little things (daily scripture study, daily prayer, journal writing, goals to become better, finding answers through prayer and revelation, etc.), but it's ALWAYS hard. It's always an adjustment and life always seems to get in the way.

It's like when you go on vacation and you're so caught up in the change of schedule, place, and excitement of the vacation that you don't exercise or you forget to read your scriptures or you don't do some other daily routine, just because of the change. It's exactly like that, but on a bigger scale.

Anyway, since I'm kind of getting back into a routine of pondering and reading scriptures and the Ensign, I was reading something this morning that stood out to me. It is from the July 2013 Ensign article "Pioneer Faith and Fortitude---Then and Now" by Elder M. Russell Ballard. 

"When we truly believe, we don't ask, 'What do I have to do?' but rather, 'What more can I do?'"

Think about all the situations where switching out that first question for the second would really make a difference! These are some situations I thought of:

• When trying to be a good spouse and strengthen marriage what if I asked "what more can I do?" instead of "what do I have to do?"
• With keeping up friendships: "what more can I do?"
• When doing the nightly or morning prayer and scripture study routine: "What more can I do?" instead of "What do I have to do?"
• When attending church.
• When visiting extended family.
• When making new friends.
• When sharing the gospel.
• Even things like exercising, eating healthy, taking care of personal self esteem, celebrating a friend of family member's birthday, saying thank-you....

It just really stuck out to me. I think I've been a "What do I HAVE to do?" kind of person lately, but I really would like to be more of a "What MORE can I do?" woman. Yeah, I really do like the sound of that second question a lot better.